Istanbul!

It's been less than one month since my last entry - I'm really starting to pick up speed on this thing! Except that my time abroad will be over in less than 2 months. I can't believe it's gone by so fast...but sometimes it felt as if it would drag on forever (usually that was in winter when I had absolutely nothing to do). I'm just finishing up my fourth and final 2 week paid vacation...I'll miss these! I went to Istanbul, Turkey and according to "Travel Blog" it's in the Middle East although it's also situated partly in Europe and partly in Asia. It was the most amazing place I've ever seen and it's so different from anywhere else I've ever been.

We took a flight from Lyon to Zurich and then on to Istanbul. We had arranged to couchsurf with a guy named Gokhan but less than 48 hours before our arrival he e-mailed me and said he had to cancel. Luckily, within 30 minutes we had another guy offer to host us and then the next day we had yet another offer to host us for the end of our vacation (we were there for 7 nights so we figured it would be best if we split our time between at least 2 hosts). Our new host, Kerim, offered to pick us up at the airport so when we landed we bought our visas and waited...and waited...and waited. Finally Kerim called us and to make a long story short, he was at the wrong airport and actually couldn't pick us up. It wasn't a problem though, we just got on a bus and went to a port where we took a ferry to Asia (Istanbul is split into two parts - the European side where the Golden Horn runs through the middle and the Asian side called the Anatolian side...the Asian side is where both our hosts lived and where there's a lot of history and character but most people never go there since there aren't many touristy things to do). Our host seemed really nice and we went straight to the other airport to pick up his cousin who was staying with him for the weekend as well. We got doners (like a gyro) and this drink called "Ayran" which is basically yogurt mixed with water and some salt (it's actually REALLY good!) for dinner. I ended up sleeping in Kerim's sister's bed since she was away and it was really comfortable!

The next day we saw the biggest tourist sites - the Hagia Sophia, the Blue Mosque, the Hippodrome, and the Grand Bazaar. Istanbul was like nothing I've EVER seen before - I've never been to a mosque and I've never been to a country where the dominating religion wasn't from the Christian faith. The Hagia Sophia was the largest church in Christiandom until the Turks took over Istanbul and turned it into a mosque. In the 1920's when Ataturk became the president of Turkey he turned the Hagia Sophia into a museum and there have been many renovations to remove the plaster that covered the Christian mosaics so people can see both the Christian aspect and the Muslim aspect. It was absolutely amazing to see beautiful mosaics of the Virgin Mary alongside the Arabic writings. Unfortunately there was some construction going on but we were still able to see a great deal. The Blue mosque was the first mosque I went in and it's stunning. I had read I would have to cover my shoulders/knees/hair so I made sure to wear my scarf wherever I went. When we got there we took off our shoes with everyone else but none of the other women were covering their heads and the guardian at the door that was handing out scarves to people who had their knees or shoulders uncovered wasn't saying anything to the women about covering their heads so I didn't cover my head. Later when we talked to our hosts they said I should have covered my head anyways and I definitely covered my head at the rest of the mosques - I didn't want to cover my head and then have people feel like I was poking fun at the Muslim women who were there to pray. Anyways, I learned the proper etiquette and when we went back to the Blue Mosque later in the week I covered my head then to make up for my mistake. Anyways, the Blue Mosque has tiles inside that are - of course - blue! These tiles are from the Iznik region of Turkey and are very distinct. The place is gorgeous and we spent a little while inside just staring at the ceiling and walls. The Hippodrome wasn't what we thought it would be - it was just two obelisks outside the Blue Mosque. Finally we went to the Grand Bazaar which is a huge covered market with ANYTHING you could imagine. You are supposed to bargain and get the price to about 1/2 the asking price and I was really nervous about this - I've never bargained and I am not very good at it! We just looked around scouting what we might want to buy and then met our host, his cousin, and his cousin's friend at a bar.

With Kerim we had a really good time. We had some interesting conversations about religion, politics, the war, etc. He is agnostic and it was really interesting to hear his point of view on all these subjects. He took us out on Thursday and Friday night and it was really fun. Thursday night was just the bar and it was the ONLY time during the whole trip I got to talk to a Turkish girl (by the end I was a little fed up with hanging out with only guys - I needed some girl talk!). The girl was an English teacher in Istanbul and she was really nice. We talked about Turkish toilets (the ones with the places for your feet and then a hole in the ground) and she explained that it's because in the Muslim religion cleanliness is very important (for example, Muslims wash their hands/feet/faces with water from special faucets outside the mosque before they enter to pray) so when they go to the bathroom they don't like to sit in the same place someone else has. I had some trouble with the Turkish toilet but I was able to manage! She told me one of her friend's grandmothers lived in the country and had never seen a "French toilet" (the ones we use) and when she finally went somewhere that only had a French toilet (usually public places will have both types of toilets and you can decide which one to use) she climbed up on the toilet seat with the help of her cane and used it like an elevated Turkish toilet! The next night we went out to a brewery and an 80's party. People in Turkey definitely dance better than French people!

Our last day with Kerim he made us a Turkish breakfast with omelets, tomatoes, cucumbers, cheese, tea, and sausage. It was so delicious! He even got me some baklava because he knew that's my favorite thing! (I ate baklava every day except one in Turkey...and I ate baklava two times the day after I couldn't find any just to make up for the day I missed!). Kerim also took me to get a new suitcase...when I got my suitcase after my flight there it didn't have any zipper pulls! I don't know how this happened but the zipper pulls were gone but the zipper was still zipped. The first night when I opened by bag I had to pry open the zipper with my hands and then it would never zipper again. Kerim took me to a German shop and I bought a new suitcase which I refer to as my "Koffer Trolley" since that's the German name it came with!

While with Kerim we also went to the Cistern Basilica which is a huge underground area that was used to hold water in case of drought in Istanbul. It's dark with pillars everywhere. We also spent a day taking a ferry cruise up to the mouth of the Black Sea and then back. That day was my favorite day in Istanbul! The ferry was so crowded and Vince and I were tired but when we got to the small fishing village near the Black Sea it was all worth it. We walked up from the town to the castle ruins up on a huge hill. From the top of the hill you could see the Black Sea and the Bosphorus and it was breathtaking. The weather was beautiful and Vince and I spent as long as we could up on that hill. There were ruins but no guard fences so you could climb out on the old outter walls and just sit where the drop-off is. All the parents were telling their children not to do it (by children I mean they were our age!) but Vince and I had no parents to tell us no so we climbed out there and sat for a while. It was awesome. When we went back down the hill we ate a little restaurant and then got back on the ferry to go to Istanbul. We also went to the Galata tower which was built to look for fires in Istanbul. It gave a beautiful view over the city. We went to the Sulleymanye Mosque which was under construction so it wasn't that great. Kerim also ordered us Pide which is the Turkish version of pizza - it was delicious!

After 4 nights with Kerim we left to meet our new hosts - Mustafa and Serdar. They lived closer to the port on the Asian side and we both had an even better time with them (even though they only had a Turkish toilet in their apartment!). They are both practicing Muslims and we learned a lot about the Muslim religion from them...I may have asked too many questions but I was just curious! We were supposed to meet Mustafa at the Uskudar place but we ended up having some problems. We left Kerim's place early and took a bus to our usual port. Once there we asked around and someone told us what bus to get on to go to Uskudar. The buses don't have their stops listed so we just watched out the window for what seemed like Uskudar place (Mustafa said it was near the water and had a big mosque - which is the description for numerous places in Istanbul!). We finally just jumped off and had NO IDEA where we were. We couldn't call Mustafa because our French phones wouldn't let us dial and international number. We were stuck. Luckily, Mustafa had given us his address so we got in a cab and gave him the address. It was just like the Amazing Race - the guy said he knew where to go but proceeded to jump out of the cab two times to ask directions. We finally got there but no one was home! Of course Mustafa was still waiting for us (by this time we were over an hour late) and Serdar was out. Luckily, Turkish people are the nicest people and some teenage girl saw us from across the street on her balcony and yelled out to us asking us who we were waiting for. We yelled back and she told us her parents had Serdar's number so they could call Serdar for us and he could call Mustafa for us. The whole family came out on the balcony and waved to us and gave us the "Just one minute!" signal. The girl came out and unlocked the front door to the apartment for us (turns out she's the daughter of the landlords of the apartment building) and Mustafa came running up the street to meet us.

After our introductions Mustafa took us to an old palace on the Bosphorus which is where Serdar met us. It was beautiful! Serdar and Mustafa translated the whole tour for us because we missed the English tour. Then they took us up a huge hill to look our over Istanbul which is also where we ate lunch. I had learned the Turkish word for thank you because I'm always saying thanks but they really don't say it much in Turkey. My natural instinct was to say "saul" for everything and people would look at me like I was crazy! Mustafa and Serdar thought it was particularly funny and joked about it with the waiter (this happened everywhere we went! I would say "saul" and then the waiter would look at Serdar quizzically and the Serdar would explain I was American and being polite and the waiter would say he thought I was very nice and offer a story of someone being mean - they definitely appreciated me there!). Mustafa told me to say "Ayola" and bow my head while putting my hand on my heart the next time the waiter came...so I did. He looked shocked and then laughed and said it back to me. Apparently this is a phrase usually only guys use to say "thanks" and people were impressed that I was a girl and a foreigner but still knew it (it's not derogatory or mean or anything). We then went back to their place and stopped in a mosque on the way (it had a little bird mosque too!). That night we walked along the seaside to look out at the other side of Istanbul and at the Maiden Tower (where some king locked his daughter since someone told him she'd get bit by a snake). We ate along the sea and then came back and watched a movie.

The next day Mustafa went to work (he works at a bank) and Serdar made us an awesome Turkish breakfast (he bought different pastries every day!). Vince and I spent the day at the Topkapi Palace which is the largest palace where the Sultans lived. It was huge and beautiful - especially the Harem. We met Serdar in Taksim (the big shopping/bar/restaurant street) and he took us to his secret lookout. We sat there in silence for awhile until a group of little kids (8/9 year old boys) came with an older guy that Serdar knew. When the kids heard our English and found out we were American they went crazy! First they didn't believe we were American since we weren't black (they said all Americans are black like Obama). Then they asked us a million questions like what we do, why we are teachers and not police officers, if we have cars, why I have a car since girls are bad drivers, if we like America or Turkey better (this one was interesting because I said Turkey since in France if you say America is better they will get all upset - but these little kids told me I should love my own country first...very smart!). One kid was in love with me - he told me I had beautiful eyes and then asked if I had a nose job because he thought my nose was beautiful and didn't know how I got it that way! They also asked me for a kiss and my number but I refused. They were sooo adorable and just kept looking straight at us and rambling in Turkish with these huge gestures and expressions even though we couldn't understand them at all. Poor Serdar had to try to keep up with them and translate everything! It was awesome and it's those kinds of real cultural interactions that make couchsurfing really worth it. Later that night we met Mustafa at a traditional Anatolian restaurant (they are both from central Turkey - in the heart of Anatolia) and it was sooooo good! I had chicken that had grape leaves stuffed with rice inside it. Then we went home and went to sleep.

Our final day we went to the most beautiful mosque - my favorite of the whole trip (better than the Blue Mosque). We went back to the bazaar and the spice bazaar and I bought some souvenirs. We went to the museum of Islamic and Turkish art that was very interesting. For the afternoon we hung out in the park and enjoyed the weather and the live music (it was the tulip festival). I had some bad luck though...I tried to get money out of a free standing ATM owned by a Turkish bank but it didn't work. Some Turkish man told me to use the ATM next to the one I was about to use so I went over to it and he proceeded to try to "help" me by taking my card and shoving it in even though I didn't ask for help or need it. The ATM was broken and when I tried to punch in my PIN number it didn't work and wouldn't give me my card back. Luckily there was a nice Turkish couple behind me who spoke English and called the bank for me. They said my only option was to cancel my card. I still wasn't sure about it so I walked up the street to the bank branch. Some kind man who didn't speak English helped me get a number and then found someone to speak English with me. Turns out these free standing ATMs only get serviced once every two months so I was out of luck. Luckily I still had my French debit card though. When my mom called I asked her to cancel my card but I wasn't sure if she'd be able to do it without me. That night we went out for a final dinner with Serdar, Mustafa, and Mustafa's friend from work who is the goalie for the Handball national championship team of Turkey and who had just bought a car. We had a typical Turkish meal and when I told Mustafa and Murat (the friend) about my card they sprung into action (since they work at a bank). They were convinced the man that "helped" me was a scam artist and they started calling their connections in the bank whose ATM I tried to use. They didn't really get anywhere with that but the day I got home from Istanbul I had a message on Facebook from Mustafa saying Murat was really worried about me and asking if I had canceled my card - they were just such nice people. Yes, my parents canceled my card immediately and there was no problem. After we ate we went to small town on the Bosphorus where they eat bitter yogurt with powdered sugar and it was so good. We stopped on the way home at an area where families were fishing for sardines and pulling them up in huge nets - they had thousands! We slept well our last night and the next day Serdar took us to the bus to the airport. We were really sad but we have great memories...I can't wait to go back!!!

Well this was long but it was the trip of a lifetime - definitely my favorite trip. We spent the next weekend in rainy Paris and basically just hung out in parks. I did finally get to see Versailles so that was pretty awesome. We stayed with awesome couchsurfing hosts there too - it's really the best way to travel.

I leave for Barcelona in just 6 days!!! I'm sure there'll be another update soon! Until then, bisous!

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